Evolution isn't working fast enough. More dumbasses need to be shot.

Month

December 2013

So, Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Duck Commander dynasty was interviewed in GQ and pissed off GLAAD, which then made a call to A&E, who then canned Phil and touched off a typhoon of controversy.

First off, this isn’t a 1st Amendment issue because the 1st Amendment only protects you from actions by the government. A&E is a private company and can employ who they want. My problem with their decision to fire Phil is purely about the hypocrisy.

I’ve never watched the show, and don’t really plan to either. I’m not a fan of ‘reality’ programming, even if it is scripted. It’s just not my cup of tea. But, from the descriptions of it I’ve read, it seems to be about a conservative Christian family that builds decoys. Apparently it’s been quite popular. The premise doesn’t seem to have changed, and the people starring don’t seem to have changed their outlook, so A&E should have known from the get-go that these people are conservative Christians. If the A&E execs didn’t, then they need to be fired (and I wish them luck in their future careers flipping burgers and/or bagging groceries, because that’s all they are really qualified for).

My problem lies with the fact that they seem surprised that a conservative Christian espouses conservative Christian values when questioned about sin. Here’s the quote in question that seems to have gotten peoples panties in a twist;

“Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong,” he says. “Sin becomes fine.”

What, in your mind, is sinful?

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says.

So, if you subscribe to a conservative Christian philosophy, that probably isn’t very controversial. But, if you want to have everyone else justify your sinful ways I guess it’s problematic. And GLAAD, (formerly Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) put in a call to A&E execs to express their outrage that someone doesn’t approve of their behavior. That’s GLAADs right to express their dissatisfaction, and if they want to boycott the show and/or network over it that is also their right. A&E decided that they agreed with GLAAD and indefinitely suspended (AKA: fired) him over it. Once again, it’s A&Es right to fire their employee over conduct they find detrimental. But, this is also where I take umbrage.

An alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet. Worse, they were lawyering up. . . .

In the hilarious tradition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Rob Reid takes you on a headlong journey through the outer reaches of the universe—and the inner workings of our absurdly dysfunctional music industry.

Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.

The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.

Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.

Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.

Bison roll up 623 yards in beating Coastal Carolina 48-14 in FCS quarterfinals. This team is darn good. With the way they are playing the only FCS team I see having a chance of beating them right now might be Eastern Washington who upset then #25 Oregon State the same weekend NDSU beat Kansas State. We’ll have to see how things play out. But, if they win their third straight title, I’d have to consider this the All-time best NDSU Bison team in the history of the school.

NDSU opened the season on the road with an upset win over defending Big 12 champion Kansas State. That final drive is really indicative of what this team is like. At the beginning of that 18 play (nearly 9 minute) drive it doesn’t look so good. But, Brock Jensen gets the team into position to succeed. By the end of the drive, it’s the Bison offensive line that is looking good, and the K-State defense is standing around with their hands on their hips trying to figure out what’s going on. The fans in the stands just look shell shocked. But, that is what the Bison do to you. They wear you down. Against Coastal Carolina they did it early, and just continued throughout the game. And, the NDSU defense is stifling. They held the #3 ranked offense to 29 yards in the first quarter, and under 300 for the game. They’ve been doing this to teams all season. Outside of Kansas State, the only team close to them was Northern Iowa who they beat 24-23. No one else has been closer than 15 points all season.

I got this image from Occupy Posters on Facebook. When I first saw it, I was slightly bothered by the obvious ‘gimme, gimme’ handout attitude.

According to their Facebook page:

Occupy Posters –NameRemoved – The issue is *status in law*. A “privilege” and a “right” in law have different statuses. Courts view a “right,” and rational state abridgements of a right with much stricter scrutiny than something encoded in to law as a “privilege.” In law, obtaining post-secondary education in the U.S. is a privilege whereas obtaining a gun is a right. That’s askew to say the least. Does that help?